FIELD OF THE INVENTION AND PRIOR ART
The field of the invention is exercise methods and devices.
Much of the exercise equipment available to the normal consumer desirous of staying in good physical condition and maintaining good muscle tone consists of well known barbell sets or the more modern systems of pulleys and weights arranged such that the user receives his exercise by pushing or pulling against either friction or gravity. The barbell style equipment is usually bulky because of the need to be able to increase the number of weights used for each exercise as the user achieves his goal of good muscle tone or physical conditioning. Modern weight equipment, while usually more compact, is generally quite expensive.
An alternative to the purchase of equipment by the athletically inclined person is to join an athletic club. This alternative, however, is available only to those persons living close to such a club and having the money to pa the initial fee of several hundred dollars and maintain the monthly payments.
Persons desirous of maintaining or improving their physical condition and muscle tone and unable to join an athletic club or purchase their own equipment because of money, time, distance or space requirements, has had to resort to calisthenics or isometrics. While calisthenics are very beneficial, they do not allow the exerciser to vary the resistance required to perform the exercise. For example, when performing deep knee bends, the only resistance placed on the back, leg and stomach muscles when performing the exercise, is the persons own weight. With the use of bar bells or weight machines, the user would have been able to gradually increase the resistance or load by adding weights or increasing the friction, allowing the exerciser to develop a particular set muscles more rapidly.
Isometric exercises, while very convenient for the upper extremities, are difficult to perform on the lower extremities and back. Furthermore, isometric exercises focus on one particular muscle at a time and generally do not result in a sustained increase in heart rate or respiration as can be achieved through calisthenics or exercise machines because of the suggested short duration of isometric exercises.